The Day After, Locally

It has become apparent that in Northwest Illinois we are staunchly Republican on the local level. The overwhelming victories by Sen. Bivins, Congressman Sacia, and U.S. Representative Manzullo. The election in Stephenson County mirrored the national percentages in voting for Sen. Obama over Sen. McCain. This is the first time that I am aware of that our county has voted in favor of a Democratic presidential nominee over a Republican.

The City of Freeport, which is extremely slow to change or to accept new concepts and ideas, voted overwhelmingly (65% to 35%) to stay with the Mayor-Council form of government instead of looking toward the future of our economic livelihood and strongly consider a City Manager-Mayor-Council form. We either embrace our candidates for their outgoing personality, even if the city is eroding around us, or kick them out if our taxes are raised to an uncomfortable level.

What does any of this portend for our local economy in a time when our major employers, such as MetLife, let more employees go, including ones that had been there for more than 40 years and had dedicated their lives to the company? We see the bright and shiny new retail stores like Wal-Mart, Menards, and the refurbished Farm and Fleet, but these are not "new" businesses to our area. These are expanded companies, who are now letting their new hires go as the economy continues to slide and the stores reach a point of balanced business (the initial traffic flow has leveled off).

We are landlocked in Freeport with no major expressways nearby (think Rochelle and I-88 and I-39) and no four-lane highway to our West. This has severely limited our ability to grow in population or in business. We are now at a 6.9% unemployment rate compared with 4.8% one year ago, as of September. Of course, this isn't helped by the 8.9% rate in Winnebago County, where many of our residents work. How many more unemployed do we have that are now on other forms of subsidized income who no longer qualify for unemployment benefits?

There are many aspects of our city and county that are in need of assistance, whether through the government or local business initiatives. There is definitely a need for the two to be working together for the area and not have people so consumed with personal approval ratings or image, but who get things done with the general good of the economy and standard of living not taking a backseat to the next election.